KpopBehind

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Are you a big fan of k-pop? Well, 2017 should be a very happy year for k-pop fans because so many rookie boy groups debuted or will debut this year. ONF, a 7-member group of WM Entertainment released its debut album on August 2, while it is notable that ONF is the agency's first boy group since B1A4 debuted 6 years ago. And Golden Child, a 11-member boy group of Woollim Entertainment will make a debut soon too. The team is Woollim's first boy group since Infinite debuted 7 years ago.

That's not all. Music Works' new boy group MYTEEN debuted on July 26, and Music K's IZ will debut on August 31. And The Boyz, a rookie boy group of Creker Entertainment is preparing for its debut too.

By the way, don't you think there are too many boy groups who debut this year? Well, of course, the boy groups have been preparing for their debut for a long time, and they chose 2017 as their debut year, which means you might be able to say there's nothing strange about the fact that they release their debut albums around the same time. However, there's a story behind it.

No doubt, BTS is now one of the most popular k-pop idol groups. BTS is loved by so many fans at home and abroad, while the group also won BBMAs Top Social Artist award.

And you know, BTS' huge success has come as a great shock to many people in the k-pop industry because the group belongs to Big Hit entertainment, which is not as big kpop agency as SM, YG, or JYP. Many people in the k-pop industry was stimulated by BTS' success, and yeah, a lot of small and medium k-pop agencies are dreaming of making the next BTS. That's one reason why so many boy groups debuted or will debut this year. Unlike the old days when boy groups of SM, YG and JYP dominated the k-pop world, boy groups of small and medium k-pop agencies can now dream of achieving huge success because BTS has proved that a boy group of a small k-pop agency can do it.
Yeah, the trend of k-pop market has changed because of BTS, and actually, such a change of k-pop market is very natural. When TVXQ achieve great success, many of k-pop agencies tried to make a boy group like TVXQ, and when Girls' Generation and Wonder Girls gained huge popularity, k-pop agencies dreamed of making a girl group like them. And do you remember that so many new girl groups such as WJSN, Gugudan and Momoland debuted in 2016? It can be understood in the same vein. In 2015, TWICE and GFriend made a huge success, and k-pop agencies wanted to make the next TWICE or the next GFriend.

Of course, it will be never easy for idol groups of small and medium k-pop agencies to become as successful as BTS because the BTS members are very talented and they put a lot of time and effort into their music. But at least it's remarkable that they got great courage through BTS' success.